The cottage was built by my grandfather who was an engineer and a friend who was a carpenter.  The cottage was originally built with novelty siding but proved to bleed water in a strong rain.  So shingles were added.  The shingles came from Washington State.  The fire place bricks were made on the Cape in Barnstable.  The toilet was an outhouse in the corner of the garage.  The garage was originally separate from the house.  The kitchen was partly outside with water furnished from a well.  The well pump house is still attached to the main house.  The cottage had two bedrooms and two lofts for storage with ladders going to the lofts.  

In the 1930’s the cottage had a number of improvements.  A breezeway was added between the garage and cottage.  Plumbing was added, so a bathroom was added and the kitchen was enlarged.  The lofts were connected by a walkway and converted to small sleeping rooms, creating a second floor space.  A ladder located in the sitting room was added for access.  The last addition was the small office over the garage.  Since the 1930’s, no additions have been made.

Our family has remained the sole occupants of Windward through five generations starting with Arthur A Tenney down to his six great great grandchildren.

During the summer of 1946, 47, and 48 we had an annual softball game in the Tenney cottage front yard.  In those days there was very little vegetation over the bluff.  You could go down the bank to retrieve the ball.  Walking over the bank was discouraged because it led to further erosion.  Therefore, hitting the ball over the bank was ruled an out.  The men batted opposite hand and children and wives also played.  The Tenneys, Youngs, Rollins, Oberteuffers plus other individuals were involved.  I remember Gill Crowl played one year.  He had some burn scars which my Dad told me he had received as a Marine during World War II.  My sister was 12 and I was ten years old.  We had coffee, sodas, sandwiches, and cookies served on the front porch of the cottage.  The whole Tenney family played.  This included my Sister, Reggie, my Mom, Cecile, my Dad, Joe F, Grandfather, Arthur, Grandmother, Elsie, Aunt, Connie, and me, Joe R.  It was fun and more social than athletic.  In the fall of 1948 my Dad got orders to Hawaii and that essentially ended the games.

Joe Tenney


Our first summer vacation at Nauset Heights was spent in a tent at the harbor end of the point. David Young, a caretaker for the “old Camp” where several men from town held meetings and got together, told us to camp at the end of the point. Father had motored from Fitchburg in Mr. Hill’s runabout car and met Mother, Brother Joe and me at the R.R. station, and took us to Sammy Higgins Rooming House in East Orleans where we spent nights. They would come for us at 7:00 am each day and take us back about 7:00 pm. Mother did the cooking over an open fire and we had fun on the beach.

We were a curiosity to the 11 families; the Farnhams, Callanans, Maloney’s Jarvis, Mrs. Teft, Bennets, Taylors, Marvels, Youngs, Richardsons, and the Old Camp. We camped for 1914 and then rented the Old Camp for three summers, building our own cottage to use the summer of 1918. 

That first year in our own place was exciting. That summer a German U-Boat sank three barges and set the tug on fire right out in front of Nauset Heights. After the firing subsided we all went out to see the survivors come ashore. One family, Captain Ainsley, his wife and two sons, lost everything so they stayed with families on the Heights all summer.

Their collie dog and a hen were rescued. We kept them in Mr. Young’s garage and charged 10 cents to see “the Hen and the Huns didn’t get” and made $10 for the Red Cross.

Nauset Heights was originally a farm, which was purchased and divided up into lots. The old farm house is on the shore of the Mill Pond and has had several owners.

When we were growing up no one on the Heights had a car except Mrs. Dan Taylor. Occasionally she would take us up to the dance at the town hall. Her daughter, Phoebe Taylor, was on of the gang, and grew up to become a mystery story writer.

Our mail was put in mail boxes up near the Mayo Duck Farm and each day we’d all walk up the hill to get the mail. Once or twice a week T.A. Smith’s little grocery store in town would send a man down to take orders and then he would deliver the groceries in the afternoon.

Will Cummings was the ice man and also sold us eggs. We had no electricity so we used kerosene lamps and pumped our water by hand. Our well was 60 feet deep.

Constance Tenney (1907 – 2002)